Midlist Writer: travel. travel writing

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Thursday, 9 January 2014

Book Review: Leo Africanus

Leo Africanus by Amin Maalouf
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a wonderful novel. This is everything a historical novel should be--rich in period detail, meticulously researched, and filled with believable characters that bring the era alive.
Based on the true story of one of the great Muslim travelers, we get to see the Songhai Empire, the capture of Egypt by the Ottomans, and the high culture and low morals of Renaissance Rome.
The real Leo Africanus is an enigmatic figure and there are large gaps in what we know of his life. Maalouf fills these with all sorts of adventures and meetings with famous people and weaves fiction and history seamlessly together.
Maalouf explains everything well and the reader is never lost despite the flurry of names and places. At times I could have used some more detail and felt that even at 360 densely set pages that it was a bit rushed. I would have been happy for it to have been twice as long!
If you like historical novels and have an interest in the Muslim world or Renaissance history, be sure to pick up this modern classic.

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Monday, 11 July 2011

Hoping to travel to South Sudan

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've heard that the Republic of South Sudan has just become the world's newest country. Welcome to the family of nations!

I'm looking into ways to get there in order to be the first travel blogger to write a series about it. My series about traveling in Somaliland, a country that doesn't officially exist, was my most popular ever, so I'm hoping the South Sudanese government will respond to my inquiries. With Gadling getting ten million hits a month, I could sure give them some good publicity.

I also have to figure out how to be the first Postcrossing member to get a postcard from South Sudan. . .

[Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons]

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The Case of the Purloined Pyramid

The Last Hotel Room

He came to Tangier to die, but life isn’t done with him yet. Tom Miller has lost his job, his wife, and his dreams. Broke and alone, he ends up in a flophouse in Morocco, ready to end it all. But soon he finds himself tangled in a web of danger and duty as he’s pulled into scamming tourists for a crooked cop while trying to help a Syrian refugee boy survive life on the streets. Can a lifelong loser do something good for a change? A portion of my royalties will go to a charity for Syrian refugees.

Warpath into Sonora

Arizona 1846: Nantan, a young Apache warrior, is building a name for himself by leading raids against Mexican ranches to impress his war chief, and the chief’s lovely daughter. But there is one thing he and all other Apaches fear—a ruthless band of Mexican scalp hunters who slaughter entire villages. Nantan and his friends have sworn to fight back, but they are inexperienced, and led by a war chief driven mad with a thirst for revenge. Can they track their tribe’s worst enemy into unknown territory and defeat them?

Radio Hope

In a world shattered by war, pollution and disease. . . A gunslinging mother longs to find a safe refuge for her son. A frustrated revolutionary delivers water to villagers living on a toxic waste dump. The assistant mayor of humanity's last city hopes he will never have to take command. One thing gives them the promise of a better future--Radio Hope, a mysterious station that broadcasts vital information about surviving in a blighted world. But when a mad prophet and his army of fanatics march out of the wildlands on a crusade to purify the land with blood and fire, all three will find their lives intertwining, and changing forever.

Refugees from the Righteous Horde (Toxic World Book 2)

When you only have one shot, you better aim true. In a ravaged world, civilization’s last outpost is reeling after fighting off the fanatical warriors of the Righteous Horde. Sheriff Annette Cruz becomes New City’s long arm of vengeance as she sets off across the wildlands to take out the cult’s leader. All she has is a sniper’s rifle with one bullet and a former cultist with his own agenda. Meanwhile, one of the cult’s escaped slaves makes a discovery that could tear New City apart. . . Refugees from the Righteous Horde continues the Toxic World series started in Radio Hope, an ongoing narrative of humanity’s struggle to rebuild the world it ruined.

The Scavenger

In a world shattered by war, pollution, and disease, a lone scavenger discovers a priceless relic from the Old Times. The problem is, it's stuck in the middle of the worst wasteland he knows--a contaminated city inhabited by insane chem addicts and vengeful villagers. Only his wits, his gun, and an unlikely ally can get him out alive. Set in the Toxic World series introduced in the novel Radio Hope, this 10,000-word story explores more of the dangers and personalities that make up a post-apocalyptic world that's all too possible.

Trench Raiders

September 1914: The British Expeditionary Force has the Germans on the run, or so they think. After a month of bitter fighting, the British are battered, exhausted, and down to half their strength, yet they’ve helped save Paris and are pushing toward Berlin. Then the retreating Germans decide to make a stand. Holding a steep slope beside the River Aisne, the entrenched Germans mow down the advancing British with machine gun fire. Soon the British dig in too, and it looks like the war might grind down into deadly stalemate. Searching through No-Man’s Land in the darkness, Private Timothy Crawford of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry finds a chink in the German armor. But can this lowly private, who spends as much time in the battalion guardhouse as he does on the parade ground, convince his commanding officer to risk everything for a chance to break through?

Pages

Thursday, 9 January 2014

Book Review: Leo Africanus

Monday, 11 July 2011

Hoping to travel to South Sudan